Hans looked up, letting his tongue loll out as he greeted the old man. ‘I’m way better than a German Shepherd. You’ll soon be phoning the pound to drop off the stupid brute you’ve got so you can get a cool dog like me instead.’
Rex growled a warning.
‘Don’t go getting jealous now, Rex,’ Albert chided his dog. ‘I’m just holding him because we don’t have his lead with us.’
‘Yeah, that and because I’m adorable,’ cheered Hans, wriggling around until he was lying on his back and being cradled like a baby.
Rex growled again.
Albert had to wait ten minutes before Victor returned. Someone had come out to prop the front door open, using a chair which Albert then helpfully sat on to keep it in place. The doors and windows at the back were also open, the passage of air driving the smoke from the café as the staff cleaned up the mess.
‘What a mess,’ muttered Victor, sagging against the doorframe. ‘Would you like a free clanger? It may or may not be flavoured by the smoke.’ Victor pointed to the glass cabinet set into the counter which was mostly full of clangers waiting to be sold. ‘I’ve got about a day’s worth of product going to waste now. I can’t sell it, and we’ll have to air the café out for the rest of the day to make sure it doesn’t smell when we open tomorrow morning. It’s just one thing after another at the moment.’ He sighed, a weary, mournful noise that captured how he felt without the need for words. ‘I wonder if the café can survive this.’
He didn’t expect a response to his statement and Albert didn’t offer one. He was thinking about what he did want to eat as a smoke flavoured clanger did not appeal. He was also pondering what he could or should do next. Having established that the police focussed their attention on Kate because April fingered her for the crime, he understood how the current situation came about. However, he hadn’t gained any useful knowledge. Kate still had no alibi and all the motive. No one else had presented themselves as a viable suspect to investigate – he didn’t for one moment think April was guilty – so what was his next move? It already felt like he was clutching at straws.
Sucking on his lips in thought, he decided that if all he had to clutch at were straws, he might as well accept it and see what fruit they might bear. ‘Do you, by any chance, have a key to your sister’s house?’
Kate’s Place
Victor didn’t have a key, but he knew where Kate kept her spare. Returning from a quick trip to the accountancy office in the back of the building, he also had Hans’s lead in his hand when he got back.
‘Can you keep Hans with you for a little while, please?’ he begged.
Rex couldn’t believe his ears. Nor his eyes, when they set off together, Hans straining his lead to be the dog in front even though he was one quarter Rex’s length.
Victor needed to keep the café doors open and didn’t want to lock Hans in one of the backrooms where he might start chewing things. Albert didn’t think Hans would do that, chewing destructively is something dogs grow out of when they are still puppies, but he thought it might do Rex good to have a doggy friend around for a while.
‘I can’t believe you are coming with us,’ muttered Rex.
Hans sniggered. ‘Worried you might get replaced?’
‘By you? Be serious. My human likes to have a dog by his side, not a handbag accessory,’
‘Hey!’ yelled Albert as the dachshund threw his snapping teeth at Rex’s front paws. After that, he kept them both on short leads and to either side of him, positioning himself in the middle. ‘I don’t care which one of you started it.’ he chastised them both equally. ‘I’ll be the one who finishes it.’
When he came across a public house, Albert didn’t think twice about going inside. It was one he had passed on his way into the town the day he arrived, and it boasted Bedfordshire’s finest selection of craft ciders. Albert usually drank stout if he were to have a longer drink, or sometimes a lager if he wanted to drink it quickly. Today, a cider sounded tempting, but more than anything, he needed a rest.
Failing to observe the dull aches creeping into his legs, hips, and back would only result in feeling too sore to do anything tomorrow. He was keen to get to Kate’s but would be good to no one if he wore himself out.
In the pub, he ended up with Hans on his lap. This was partly to keep the two dogs apart because they wouldn’t stop growling at each other, and partly because the dog was jumping up and wagging his tail to be picked up.
‘See,’ Hans goaded Rex, ‘You’re already second fiddle, wolf.’
Rex narrowed his eyes and curled back his top lip. He was going to get even with the dachshund soon enough. Until then, he laid himself on the wooden floor and closed his eyes to consider his possible methods of revenge.
After sampling his pint of cold, crisp, apple cider, Albert busied himself with a call to his eldest son, Gary.
‘Dad,’ said Gary when he answered the phone.
With the immediate impression that his son was too busy to talk, Albert said, ‘I’m just checking in, son. If you are busy at work, you can call me back when it’s more convenient to you.’
‘No, now is as good of a time as any. Are you still expecting to arrive in York on time?’
Albert was supposed to be leaving Biggleswade today and was yet to speak with the pub landlord
